<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>A young girl in Amherst, Massachusetts, wonders about the reclusive woman wholives across the street in a yellow house surrounded by a tall hedge. One dayher mother goes there to play piano, and the girl comes face to face with oneof the country's greatest poets--Emily Dickinson.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>From Michael Bedard and two-time Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Barbara Cooney comes a story<b> </b>about American poet Emily Dickinson and the young girl who befriends her.<br></b><br>What if your neighbor were the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson? And what if one day she sent a letter inviting your mother to pay her a visit? A little girl who lives across the street from the mysterious Emily gets a chance to meet the poet when her mother goes to play the piano for her. There, the girl sneaks a gift up to Emily, who listens from the landing, and in return, Emily gives the girl a precious gift of her own--the gift of poetry.<br> <i> </i><br> "This fictionalized encounter . . . is, like a Dickinson sonnet, a quiet gem: unassuming upon first glance, it is in fact deeply lustrous, with new facets becoming apparent the longer one looks.."--<i>Publishers Weekly</i> <p/>"In this imaginative and unusual picture book . . . the language of the text is lyrical . . . The illustrations convey a sense of place and time long ago, from drawing rooms to clothing. This is a picture book to read aloud and share...[Readers] will find that Bedard's charming story demystifies the person and offers some understanding of her odd behavior."--<i>School Library Journal</i> <p/><i></i>Two time Caldecott award winning illustrator Barbara Cooney's richly detailed oil paintings enhance the moving story of Dickinson's extraordinary private life."--<i>Children's Literature</i><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"This fictionalized encounter . . . is, like a Dickinson sonnet, a quiet gem: unassuming upon first glance, it is in fact deeply lustrous, with new facets becoming apparent the longer one looks.."--<i>Publishers Weekly</i> <p/>"In this imaginative and unusual picture book . . . the language of the text is lyrical . . . The illustrations convey a sense of place and time long ago, from drawing rooms to clothing. This is a picture book to read aloud and share...[Readers] will find that Bedard's charming story demystifies the person and offers some understanding of her odd behavior."--<i>School Library Journal</i> <p/><i></i>Two time Caldecott award winning illustrator Barbara Cooney's richly detailed oil paintings enhance the moving story of Dickinson's extraordinary private life."--<i>Children's Literature</i><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Michael Bedard </b>was born and raised in Toronto, where he still lives. His novels include <i>Stained Glass</i>, <i>A Darker Magic</i>, <i>Painted Devil</i>, and <i>Redwork</i>, which received the Governor General's Literary Award and the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year Award for Children. He has also written several acclaimed picture books, including <i>The Clay Ladies</i>, which received the Toronto IODE Book Award, and <i>Emily</i>, a story about Emily Dickinson, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. <p/><b>Barbara Cooney</b> traveled the world, lived in a house by the sea in Maine, and made the world more beautiful through her art. She was a two-time Caldecott Medal winner, for <i>Chanticleer and the Fox </i>in 1959 and <i>Ox-Cart Man</i> in 1980. Her beloved book <i>Miss Rumphius</i> was the winner of the American Book Award in 1982. Barbara Cooney died in 2000 at the age of eighty-two.